Fourth in a series of press releases about the 1986 LSU men’s basketball team’s run to the Final Four, re-written by the LSU Sports Information Department for LSUsports.net.
Purchase Historic 1986 Final Four Photos Here
By Will Stafford
LSU Sports Information
ATLANTA — Dale Brown could feel the momentum swinging in the direction of his opponent and knew he had to stop the bleeding — fast.
LSU’s head coach of 14 seasons stood up from his courtside seat and called a timeout with 6:08 remaining.
Georgia Tech’s Craig Neal had sent much of the Omni into a frenzy after a steal from LSU point guard Derrick Taylor and a driving layup on the other end to give the No. 2 seed Yellow Jackets their largest lead of the night at 56-52.
Brown shouted instructions to his players before sending them back onto the floor primed for a run late in the second half, and it was Taylor who responded with two quick baskets following the timeout.
The LSU senior hit a spinning shot eight feet away followed by a 14-foot jumper in the lane after a Georgia Tech turnover to tie the score at the 5:07 mark. After the teams traded baskets, senior forward Don Redden put the Tigers up for good by nailing a 21-foot jumper from the baseline with 3:28 remaining to give LSU a 60-58 lead.
With All-American sophomore John Williams held to just five points on 2-of-15 shooting, the duo knew they needed to carry the 11th-seeded Tigers down the stretch if they hoped to continue their miraculous run through the NCAA Tournament.
Redden led the way with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting, while Taylor played all 40 minutes and was 9-of-18 from the floor for 23 points in the 70-64 victory. LSU (25-11) had advanced to the Southeast Regional final in Atlanta to face Southeastern Conference champion and No. 1-seed Kentucky needing just one more win to punch its ticket to the 1986 Final Four.
“We’re the seniors,” Redden said to members of the media in the locker room following the game. “We wanted the ball in our hands. This is show time. This is what college basketball is all about. This man (putting his arm around Taylor) was lights out, just on fire. We knew we had to pick up the slack.”
There seemed to be little doubt that Redden would have a career night when he hit an 18-footer from the corner early in the first half over the outstretched arm of Georgia Tech’s 7-foot senior center John Salley — a shot he claimed he didn’t see until the ball had passed through the net.
“I felt I was in a groove when I made a shot over John Salley about three minutes into the game,” said Redden, who averaged 12.3 points per game entering the contest. “I got it so high in the air, it drew ice. When it dropped, I said to myself, ‘hey this could be my night.'”
And it was.
Redden and Taylor provided the offensive spark the Tigers needed by combining to shoot 55.9 percent from the field compared to just 26.5 percent for the rest of the team. Taylor also had five steals to lead a stifling defense that forced Georgia Tech into 17 turnovers.
“One of the most significant statistics was turnovers,” said an exhausted Brown. “We had five, our low for the season, and they had 17. I don’t know how many points we got off turnovers but it was a bunch.”
LSU’s defense was especially tough on Georgia Tech’s All-American combo of Salley and senior point guard Mark Price. Salley was limited to 11 points despite putting the Yellow Jackets up early with a pair of thunderous dunks in the first minute of the game, while Price didn’t score his first points until hitting a 22-foot jumper from the baseline at the 10:47 mark of the first half.
Although he finished with a team-high 20 points, Price scored just two in the final 6:38 after the Tigers switched to its unconventional “freak defense.” This involved sending a chaser — reserve guard Oliver Brown — to blanket Price on every defensive possession.
This strategy sealed the victory in the final 90 seconds when Brown denied Price the ball and a chance to cut LSU’s 64-60 lead in half. Seeing that Price was being smothered, Georgia Tech guard Bruce Dalrymple went charging into a Tiger defender on a baseline drive to the basket. Sophomore guard Ricky Blanton‘s uncontested layup on the other end with 51 seconds to go put the game on ice.
“It was just gut-check time,” Taylor said of that point in the game. “We went back to our freak defense and shut them down.”
For the third time in as many tournament games the underdog Tigers stood toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s best teams and came away with the victory. This time it was away from the friendly confines of the Assembly Center in Baton Rouge where they defeated No. 6-seed Purdue, 94-87, in double overtime and No. 3-seed Memphis State, 83-81, on Anthony Wilson’s buzzer-beater.
The Tigers ventured into the middle of a hornet’s nest and knocked off the sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets on a “neutral” court just six blocks away from the Georgia Tech campus, sending many of the 16,732 fans in attendance at the Omni home in disappointment.
Standing in LSU’s way of making its third trip to the Final Four was regional favorite Kentucky, a team which it hadn’t beaten in three previous meetings during the season. The Wildcats eliminated Alabama earlier in the day, 68-63, running their winning streak over SEC competition to 21 consecutive games.
Recalling the U.S. hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice” against the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, LSU’s head coach was asked in his post game press conference if he believed in miracles.
“This isn’t a miracle,” Brown said with a grin beginning to show on his face. “This is a love story. We love one another. We’re having fun. Right guys?”
“This is amazing, man,” Taylor echoed. “We really have a good attitude and we don’t have any internal problems. No one guy carries us. We have a team.”